Manohar Lal Khattar resigns as Haryana Chief Minister

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar resigned on Tuesday along with his Cabinet after differences with ally Dushyant Chautala’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP). Question arises why are JJP and BJP splitted ? The alliance between the BJP and the JJP has been at a breaking point after differences over seat-sharing in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections 2024. The BJP had won all 10 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 elections and the JJP had won none. Manohar Lal Khattar has resigned along with his Cabinet after differences with the alliance party led by Dushyant Chautala’s JJP.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his Cabinet ministers resigned after meeting Governor Bandaru Dattareya hours after the speculation of a split in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance with JJP. The cabinet comprised 14 ministers, including Manohar Lal Khattar and three members of the Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala-led JJP. All have resigned. The resignations of former Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar and his cabinet ministers in Haryana have come at this crucial stage headed for a split ahead of the approaching Lok Sabha elections 2024 and question again arises does it affect the BJP’s prospects in the coming polls?  

To understand this, let us go back to the 2019 Vidhan Sabha elections. To have a majority after the 2019 Assembly elections, the BJP had an alliance with Dushyant Chautala,s JJP after 2019 elections when it fell short of five seats. The BJP had won 41 seats, five short of reaching the majority mark in the 90-member Assembly, while Dushyant Chautala’s JJP bagged 10 seats. Post the elections, the BJP also enjoyed support from seven independent MLAs, who pledged their support to the BJP and Haryana Lokhit Party (HLP) MLA of Gopal Kanda. Despite the JJP’s exit from the Haryana alliance government following Manohar Lal Khattar’s resignation as the chief minister, it still maintains its position above the majority mark with the backing of independent as well as HLP MLAs.

It was highly likely that Manohar Lal Khattar will again take oath as the Haryana chief minister again, bus scenario changed to form the government in the evening when the name  of recently appointed BJP chief in the state Nayab Singh Saini was proposed and BJP high command declared his name as the chief minister of the state with the backing of the Independent MLAs, heerhaps assured to be accommodated in the Cabinet. There is also speculation that five JJP MLAs may crossover to the BJP, strengthening the  party. The five names doing rounds include: Jogi Ram Sihag, Ram Kumar Gautam, Ishwar Singh, Ramniwas and Devinder Babli. No body, ever had thought such a sudden change in government in the state all of sudden, but everything is possible in politics, rightly said